Ever since I was 14 (which was 40 years ago) and a 63 years old professional fly tyer named Leon Wronski who I met, got to know, and had mentor me, I have never tied fewer than 6 flies of one pattern and size at a time (the only exception to this is married wing classics). Leon constantly emphasized how important it was to maximize the time at the vise by tying flies in 1/2 dozen or full dozen lots of the same pattern and size. He said (and I agree completely with this) that tying a 1/2 dozen or full dozen of a single pattern and size of flies you use (or are tying for someone else), you will spend less time tying them, their quality will be very good, and you will always have a sufficient number of them for going fishing.

Since you've already found out Leon's other reason for insisting on tying 6-12 flies of the same pattern and size at a time, namely very little time wasted, you sound like someone looking for a better way to get your boxes filled in the time you have available for tying. Therefore, I humbly recommend that you tie at least 6 of a pattern and size you will be fishing before experimenting with changes. If you do so, you will be surprised at how quickly you get the flies you need tied. Then you will have a lot of time to mess around and experiment without worrying about having enough flies to fish with.

I forgot to mention that Leon also had a thing about getting the materials out on the tying table to tie the fly before putting the first hook in the vise. This little tidbit of having only the materials to tie one fly out and ready on the tying table before putting the first hook in the vise will save you a lot of time. If you do this, once you begin tying that fly pattern, there will be no wasted time looking for the next material because it will already by out on the table waiting for you to tie it on the fly. And finishing the 6-12 flies of that pattern, put the materials for it away and get out all the materials for the next pattern.

You will be pleasantly surprised at how many more flies you can tie in the same amount of time by doing these simple things.